As we reflect on this year, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for what we’ve accomplished together. 2024 marked a defining chapter in the story of Friends of the San Juans—a time shaped by intentional reflection, bold action, and powerful community engagement.
With your support, we celebrate 45 years as the leading advocacy organization protecting the San Juans and Salish Sea. We are grateful for the many Faces of Friends who built this organization. At the heart of our work is how we show up to protect communities and shared island resources.
This year we affirmed our core values and crafted a bold new vision that is clear about our protector role—whether safeguarding shoreline ecosystems, defending the Salish Sea, or protecting island communities, our work is for everyone, now and for generations to come.
Our dedication to advocacy and justice is reflected in our commitment to the rights of nature, and we stand as a voice for the voiceless. As an important part of this, we are leading a new collaboration with the Family Resource Centers on Orcas, San Juan, and Lopez Islands. Together, we’re listening deeply to those voices that have not been heard enough in public life or in our policy and planning processes.
The role of scientific and educational outreach is pivotal in shaping environmental protections and policies, and we are digging in and engaging our island communities in the County’s Comprehensive (Comp) Plan update. With adding a new Climate Element in the Comp Plan, which Friends advocated for, we are energized to protect what matters most.
Friends’ Board and Staff deepened our relationship-building with Tribes and First Nations. We curated screenings across the islands of the Indigenous civil rights movie, FISH WAR, and were honored to have Tribal dignitaries present. With 600 people attending these events, we celebrated Native American Heritage Month. We facilitated community insight into the enduring connection between the waters we protect and the people who rely on them. And, we are partnering with the Samish Indian Nation as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Resilience Challenge. This transformative project will blend traditional ecological knowledge with forward-thinking climate strategies to protect shoreline ecosystems.
This fall, we worked vigilantly to prevent oil spill risks by monitoring increases in vessel traffic with updated research that our partners and policymakers rely on. Our infographic and report enable the public to understand where and why shipping and tanker traffic might increase in the coming years. And in a significant victory for Southern Resident killer whales, we successfully worked with a refinery during multiple problem-solving meetings to negotiate a crucial change in their plans to increase vessel traffic. We secured a new requirement to avoid additional vessel traffic and the associated increased risks and impacts to Southern Residents, their critical habitat, and the Salish Sea ecosystem.
At Friends, we set our sights on a future that we have always worked to protect. In an exciting expansion of our work, we launched our Green Boater Ambassador and Pledge Program, empowering recreational boaters to protect the Salish Sea. We also established an Island Ambassador Program to foster local protectors of our shared environment. We are dedicated to engaging and activating our communities and educating the public through community science and innovative campaigns.
We expanded our Immersive Salish Sea Education Program outreach by 89% and launched an open-source learning website with our curriculum and virtual reality videos. In addition to running our multi-day program in island high schools, we also shared our underwater 360-degree videos with hundreds of community members across the region. And recently, elders from the Mullis Senior Center experienced swimming with forage fish through our virtual reality headsets. What fun!
We showed up in big ways for neighbors who requested our assistance with their shoreline property. In 2025, we will surpass one full mile of San Juan County shoreline restored back to its natural habitat. We are excited to share that in the next 3-4 years, we will have five more restoration projects being implemented on Shaw, Lopez, Orcas, and Blakely Islands.
If you haven’t yet made your year-end, tax-deductible gift, there’s still time! Take advantage of this incredible opportunity to DOUBLE the impact of your donation through our year-end match. Your gift of $250 will automatically grow to $500, accelerating your support for the Salish Sea and the communities that depend on it.
Thank you for standing with us, protecting these islands and waters alongside us, and continuing to motivate our work. Together, we are protectors driven by a shared love for this special place and its future.
With deep gratitude for your partnership,
Eva Schulte, Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®)
Executive Director
[email protected]
360-378-3991
PS — If you missed it, find out how your contributions enable our accomplishments through our beautiful interactive 2024 Impact Report. I hope you will take a moment to journey with us and marvel at all that you help make possible.
